Hi everyone. It's currently 3:20AM and I can't sleep. I've been sick today with fever and throat ache, and the fever is causing me severe distress and anxiety. Although it's coming down at the moment (I'm sweating), my heart rate is really high - is this anxiety or something else? I am very anxious, but I'm afraid I'm going to have a heart attack. A common problem, I suppose, made worse by feeling ill.

I've been diagnosed with panic disorder in the past, so in a way I know all these feelings are just anxiety. But with being sick, there is a big part of my brain shouting at me, wondering whether it is that some awful heart disease / blood poisoning thing, or whether my fever's going to go uncontrollably high...

I guess what I'm getting at is that does anyone else suffer from a lot of anxiety while sick? I'm very hypocondriac-y and panic-y every time I catch as much as a cold. I'm especially afraid to sleep, which obviously doesn't help with either anxiety or the illness.

I've definitely noticed that before and while I'm sick my anxiety is much worse. When I was younger and didn't have anxiety as bad, a day or two before I got sick I would have much worse anxiety and I could practically predict that I was going to get sick. The anxiety lasted until I got better. As I got older and my anxiety became worse, the same thing still happens, although my anxiety is not gone when I get better, its not nearly as bad as when I am sick. Try drinking some camomile tea, as it always helps me with my anxiety especially when i need to sleep.